sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bowerchalke, Bremhill, Chute Forest, Crudwell, Dauntsey Vale, Devizes

Local Government Boundary Commission For Report No. 6 81

Review of Electoral Arrangements

COUNTY OF W LTSHIRE GOVERNMENT

BOUNDARY OOMMIC SS ICON

REPORT NUMBER 6 8 a. BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND

CHAIRMAN MR K F J ENNALS CB

MEMBERS MR G R PRENTICE

MRS H R V SARKANY

MR C W SMITH

PROFESSOR K YOUNG THE RT HON KENNETH CLARKE QC MP SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT

PROPOSALS FOR CHANGE TO THE ELECTORAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE COUNTY OF

INTRODUCTION

1. The present electoral arrangements for the County of Wiltshire date from May 1981 when the County of Wiltshire (Electoral Arrangements) Order 1981 came into force. It provided for 75 electoral divisions.

2. In 1983 Wiltshire and Thamesdown Borough Council drew our attention to a number of electoral imbalances between county divisions. We concluded that because of major changes to the size and distribution of the electorate which had either taken place, or were expected to take place, a further review of the County's electoral arrangements would be appropriate.

3. Initially, we decided to conduct a two-stage review in order to deal firstly with the Toothill area of and, secondly, with the rest of the County. We reported our proposals for Toothill on 2 November 1984 in our Report No 486 and our proposals were implemented by an Order, which came into effect on 2 May 1985. However, when we came to the second stage of the review, the County Council drew our attention to the continued growth of the electorate in the Toothill area and requested a full review of the County. We therefore reconsidered our earlier decision and decided to conduct a full review of the County's electoral arrangements.

4. We announced the start of the review in a letter dated 3 September 1987 and invited the County Council or any other interested party, having regard to the requirements of Schedule 11 of the Local Government Act 1972, to submit to us a draft scheme for revised electoral arrangements for the County. Copies of the letter were sent to the County's five District Councils; to all the and councils and parish meetings in the County; to local Members of Parliament; to the headquarters of the main political parties; to local newspapers, radio and television stations; and to the local government press. The start of the review was also announced by press and public notice.

FORMULATION OF OUR DRAFT PROPOSALS

(i) The County Council's Draft

5. On 17 February 1988, the County Council submitted a scheme based upon the 1987 electorate and the forecast electorate for 1992, which recommended an increase in the size of the Council from 75 to 76 members. It proposed an increase in the number of divisions in the Borough of Thamesdown by one with the number of divisions in the other four districts remaining unchanged. The scheme offered an improved standard of electoral representation by 1992 when 31 divisions would have ratios of electors to councillors varying 10% or less from the County average (compared to 16 under existing arrangements), and 20 divisions would vary from the average by more than 20% (against 27 under existing arrangements). However, we were concerned that the County Council's draft scheme still left too many divisions varying significantly from the County average. Furthermore, we were concerned that the ratio of electors per councillor would deteriorate significantly between 1987 and 1992 in the districts of and .

rts on the County Council's Draft Scheme

6. We received 42 comments in response to the County Council's scheme, of which 13 were forwarded to us by the County Council. The comments included two alternative schemes for the whole county and one solely affecting the district of West Wiltshire. These are discussed below. (iii) Alternative Schemes

7. Alternative schemes for the whole County were submitted by Thamesdown Borough Council and the South-West Regional Office of the Labour Party. West Wiltshire Conservative Association submitted a scheme which provided alternative arrangements in West Wiltshire but otherwise was identical to the County Council's scheme.

(iv) Our Conclusion

8. We considered that Thamesdown's scheme did not provide any significant improvement to the County Council's electoral arrangements in terms of electoral equality. West Wiltshire Conservative Association's scheme marginally improved the standard of representation in West Wiltshire, but it failed to address electoral imbalances in the rest of the County. We concluded that neither scheme offered any advantage over the County Council's scheme.

9. We considered, however, that proposals submitted by the South-West Regional Office of the Labour Party for a 68-member Council offered not only a better overall standard of representation than the County Council's scheme, but also enhanced the extent of cotenninosity between county and district councillors. We therefore decided to make this scheme the basis of our draft proposals.

PUBLICATION OF OUR DRAFT PROPOSALS

10. Our draft proposals were issued on 12 January 1990. Copies were sent to the County Council, the five District Councils in Wiltshire and all those who had either received our consultation letter of 3 September 1987 or had made representations to us. Notices were also placed in local newspapers, announcing that the draft proposals had been published and could be inspected at the offices of the County or District Councils. Comments were invited by 9 March 1990. 11. Following a request by the County Council, we agreed to extend the deadline for receipt of comments by two months. A letter announcing this, and rectifying a small error in our draft proposals, was issued on 9 March 1990 and sent to all those who had received our draft proposals. We also asked the County Council to advertise notice of the extension in press and public notices.

RESPONSE TO OUR DRAFT PROPOSALS

12. We received representations from , the District Councils of Kennet, North Wiltshire, , Thamesdown and West Wiltshire, 30 parish councils, two county councillors, one district councillor, the North Wiltshire Conservative Association, the North Wiltshire Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party branches for Salisbury, Bemerton, Thamesdown District, Swindon Constituency, Lower stratton, Wiltshire and Constituency, the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils and its Thamesdown Area Committee, the Governors of Wilton Middle School and three members of the public. In addition, Parish Council forwarded a petition signed by 55 local residents opposing our draft proposals. Thirteen of these representations supported our draft proposals, while 42 opposed them, sixteen representations commented on our proposals for Salisbury, twelve apiece on our proposals for North Wiltshire and Thamesdown, eight on our proposals for Kennet and three on our proposals for West Wiltshire. The remaining four comments related to our proposals for the County as a whole.

(i) Wiltshire county Council's Revised Scheme

13. The County Council responded with a revised scheme for a 69 member council (an increase of one member over our draft proposals). The most noticeable difference between Wiltshire's new scheme and our proposals was the creation of a fourteenth division in North Wiltshire, to be known as Vale. However, although the number of divisions in the other four districts was to be unchanged, Wiltshire proposed a few further amendments. In Kennet, it proposed that the of Chute and Chute Forest should be in Collingbourne division rather than Bedwyn and division and that Devizes South division should be re-named "Devizes South and Bromham", in both cases to reflect local ties. In North Wiltshire, in addition to the new division, it proposed that minor amendments should be made to Park and Town divisions, including their re-naming as North and South respectively, and that Box division should be re-named "Pickwick with Box". In Salisbury, it proposed modifications to the divisions of , Downton, Salisbury Bemerton, Salisbury , Tisbury, and Wilton and Wylye, in order to reflect local ties. The County Council also loosely suggested creating a fourteenth division in West Wiltshire (which would further increase the council size to 70) but made no specific recommendation for the area the division would represent.

(ii) Alternative suggestions for change

14. A number of suggestions for partial revision of our proposals were received concerning North Wiltshire, Salisbury and West Wiltshire. These are discussed in the following paragraphs on a district-by-district basis.

(a) North Wiltshire

15. Four alternative suggestions were received. North Wiltshire District Council, like the County Council, recommended a fourteenth division for the district but, instead of creating a new division (as under the County Council's proposals), the District Council recommended the splitting of and Purton into two separate divisions. Chippenham suggested creating four divisions for Chippenham instead of the three suggested in our draft proposals. This would also increase the number of divisions in North Wiltshire by one. North Wiltshire Liberal Democrats suggested adopting the County Council's proposals for North Wiltshire, except for Box and divisions, where it suggested that the District Council's proposals, providing for a Box division comprising the parishes of Box and and the and Neston town wards of Corsham, and a Corsham division comprising its town wards of Corsham and Pickwick, should be adopted. Finally, Lydiard Millicent Parish Council requested inclusion in Cricklade and Purton division rather than Wootton Bassett North division.

(b) Salisbury

16. Two alternative suggestions were received. Council (supported by Idmiston Parish Council and Councillor Mrs J Hitchings) suggested the retention of fifteen divisions in the district, the transfer of the parishes of Firsdown and to and Downton divisions respectively and the transfer of Stratford district ward to Salisbury St Mark's division. Parish Council and Councillors Mr R J Baddeley and Mrs J Hitchings suggested the transfer of the parishes of Bishopstone, Bowerchalke, and Stratford Toney from Downton division to Tisbury division on grounds of community ties.

(c) West Wiltshire

17. A local resident in Westbury suggested the retention of the parish of in Whorwellsdown division and the transfer of the parish of Westwood to Holt division. West Wiltshire District Council suggested creating two extra divisions for and one for Westbury which would have required the District Council to conduct parish warding reviews of these areas first, in order to comply with Schedule 11 of the Local Government Act 1972. However, the District Council has since advised us that new parish warding arrangements for Trowbridge and Westbury will not be ready until 1995; therefore we were unable to consider the District Council's suggestions for extra divisions in its district further.

(iii) other

18. The main arguments put forward in opposition to our draft proposals were that they would reduce the number of county councillors in each district; that the standard of representation in rural areas would deteriorate; that the size of divisions in rural areas would be too large; and that they would not reflect local community ties. Several correspondents expressed a preference for existing arrangements, particularly in the case of the Cricklade and Purton area in North Wiltshire and Bradford- upon-Avon in West Wiltshire.

OUR CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL PROPOSALS

19. We recognised that the County Council's alternative scheme offered a slightly more equal standard of representation than our draft proposals, particularly in the case of Bedwyn and Pewsey division, Wootton Bassett South division and Salisbury Harnham and St Mark's divisions. Likewise, we acknowledged that the Westbury resident's suggestions for Holt, Southwick and Whorwellsdown divisions offered an improvement over our draft proposals. However, in our judgement, adoption of either scheme would offer only a slight improvement over our draft proposals at the expense of delaying the review beyond a date which would enable implementation of the proposals in time for the Hay 1993 county council elections.

20. The Council's existing arrangements are very poor in terms of electoral equality and our draft proposals offer a considerable improvement. We have concluded that it is preferable to put forward final proposals to you now rather than opt for and consult on the further small improvement offered by the schemes submitted by the County Council and the Westbury resident. Such further consultation would cause further delay and leave Wiltshire with poor electoral arrangements for four more years. We have therefore confirmed our draft proposals as final, subject to minor amendments to re-name Devizes South and Box divisions as "Devizes South and Bromham" and "Pickwick with Box" respectively to accord with local ties, and commend them to you as final proposals 21. Details of our final proposals are set out in Annexes A-F to this report, along with small scale maps showing the proposed electoral division boundaries.

PUBLICATION

22. In accordance with Section 60(5) (b) of the 1972 Act, copies of this report, together with maps suitable for display, are being sent to Wiltshire County Council and the District Councils of Rennet, North Wiltshire County Council, Salisbury, Thamesdown and West Wiltshire. These will be available for inspection at the Councils' main offices. Copies of this report are also being sent to all those persons or bodies who received our consultation letters, or have expressed an interest in the review at any subsequent stage.

8 Signed: K F J ENNALS (Chairman)

6 R PRENTICE

HELEN SARKANY

C W SMITH

K YOUNG

R D COHPTON Commission Secretary 16 July 1992 WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW INDEX MAP BOROUGH OF THAMESDOWN

Proposed ED Boundary —* Existing Borough Ward Boundary WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW PROPOSED ELECTORAL DIVISIONS BOROUGH OF THAMESDOWN

I HAYDON WICK ED 14 SWINDON PARKS ED Haydon Wick Ward Park Ward 2 ED 15 SWINDON ROUGHMOOR ED Hlghworth Ward The northern part of Toothlll Word 3 STRATTON ST MARGARET, COLEVIEW AND NYTHE ED 16 SWINDON TOOTHILL ED The Colevlew and Nythe Ward of the The southern part of Toothill Ward parish of Stratton St Margaret 17 SWINDON WALCOT ED 4 STRATTON ST MARGARET, ST MARGARET ED Walcot Ward The St Margaret Ward of the 18 SWINDON WESTERN ED parish of Sfration SI Marqorel Western Ward 5 STRATTON ST MARGARET, ST PHILIP ED 19 SWINDON WHITWORTH ED St Philip Ward Whitworth Ward 6 SWINDON CENTRAL ED 20 WANBOROUGH ED Central Ward Ward 7 SWINDON COVINGHAM ED Chlseldon Ward Covlngham Ward Rldgewoy Ward and part of Dorcan Ward 21 ED 8 SWINDON DORCAN SOUTH ED Wroughton Ward The remainder of Dorcan Ward 9 SWINDON EASTCOTT ED Eostcott Ward 10 SWINDON FRESHBROOK ED Freshbrook Ward II SWINDON GORSE HILL ED Gorse Hill Ward 12 SWINDON LAWNS ED Lawns Ward 13 SWINDON MOREDON ED Moredon Ward WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW INDEX MAP NORTH WILTSHIRE DISTRICT

Proposed ED Boundary Existing District Ward Boundary WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW PROPOSED ELECTORAL DIVISIONS NORTH WILTSHIRE DISTRICT

1 PICKWICK WITH BOX ED 7 CORSHAM ED Box Ward Corsham Ward Pickwick Ward Lacock Ward 2 AND WITHOUT ED Neston and Gastard Ward Bremhill Ward 6 CRICKLADE AND PURTON ED Calne Without Ward Crlcklade Ward Calne South Ward Purton Ward Ward 9 KINGTON ED 3 CALNE ED Colerne Ward Catne North Ward Kington Langtey Ward Calne North East Ward Ward Calne Abberd Ward Nettleton Ward Calne Central Ward 10 ED Malmesbury Ward 4 CHIPPENHAM PARK ED St Paul Malmesbury Without Ward Avon Ward Sherston Ward Audley Word Hill Rise II ED Ward Malmesbury Road Ward Park Ward Brinkworth Ward Ward 5 CHIPPENHAM SHELDON ED Mlnety Ward Alllngton Ward Somerford Ward Redland Ward Queen's Ward 12 WOOTTON BASSETT NORTH ED Westcrott Ward Wootton Bassett North Ward The Lydlards Ward 6 CHIPPENHAM TOWN ED 13 WOOTTON BASSETT SOUTH ED Monkton Park Ward Lyneham Ward Town Ward Wootton Bassett South Ward WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW INDEX MAP

Proposed ED boundory O Existing District Ward Boundary WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW PROPOSED ELECTORAL DIVISIONS KENNET DISTRICT

| ALDBOURNE AND ED 7 LAVINGTON ED Aldbourhe Word Cheverel! Ward Ogbourne Ward Ramsbury Ward Market Lavlngton Ward Word West Overton Ward West Selkley Ward West Lavlngton Ward Ward 2 AVON AND CANNINGS ED Cannings Ward 8 MARLBOROUGH ED Ward Marlborough West Ward Ward Marlborough East Ward Wtlcot Ward Woodborough Ward 3 BEDWYN AND PEWSEY ED Bedwyn Word Burbage Ward Milton Lilbourne Ward Pewsey Word Shalbourne Ward 4 COLLINGBOURNE ED Cotlingbourne Ward Ludgershall Ward North Tldworth Word 5 DEVIZES ED Devizes Eost Word Devizes North Ward 6 DEVIZES SOUTH AND BROMHAM ED Bromham Ward Devizes South Ward Ward Ward WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW INDEX MAP SALISBURY DISTRICT

Proposed ED Boundary Existing District Ward Boundary WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW PROPOSED ELECTORAL DIVISIONS SALISBURY DISTRICT

I ALDERBURY ED 7 SALISBURY BEMERTON ED Alderbury Word Bemerton Word Whlteporlsh Ward Stratford Word Wlnterslow Ward 8 SAL|SBURY HARNHAM ED 2 AMESBURY ED Harnham Ward

v Word E° B shopdown WWard 3 BOURNE VALLEY ED St Mark Ward SeSrlcWk°Wdard I0 SALISBURY ST MARTIN ED Upper Bourne Word Milford Word Wlnterbourne Word st Edmund Ward 4 DOWNTON ED I'^SJ/S Downton Word n• ST PAUL ED Ebble Word Flsherton and Bemerton Village Ward Redlynch Ward St Paul Ward and the parishes of:- (2 TISBURY ED Bower Chalke Donhead Ward Brood Chalke Fovont Ward Blshopstone Madder Ward Slralford Toney Tlsbury Ward 5 DURRINGTON ED and the Parishes of:- Ward Durrlngton Ward 6 MERE ED l3 WILTON AND WYLYE ED Fonthill Ward Till Valley Ward Knoyle Ward w»t°n w<"d Mere Ward Wylye Ward Western Ward Avvfx £ WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW INDEX MAP WEST WILTSHIRE DISTRICT

13

12

10

Proposed ED Boundary Existing District Ward Boundary WILTSHIRE COUNTY ELECTORAL REVIEW PROPOSED ELECTORAL DIVISIONS WEST WILTSHIRE DISTRICT

I BRAOFORD-ON-AVON ED 9 UPPER WYLYE VALLEY ED Bradford-on-Avon North Ward Ward Bradford-on-Avon South Word Mid Wylye Valley Ward 2 HOLT ED Shearwater Ward Wylye Valley Ward Holt Ward Manor Vale Word 10 EAST ED Westbrook Ward Warmlnster East Ward 3 ED 11 WARMINSTER WEST ED Melksham Roundpond Ward Warmlnster West Word Melksham Forest Ward 12 WESTBURY ED Melksham Lambourne Ward Westbury with Storrldqe Ward 4 ED 13 WHORWELLSDOWN ED Blockmore Forest Ward Ethandune Ward Melksham Town Ward Paxcroft Ward Melksham Woodrow Ward Summerhom Ward

5 SOUTHWICK ED Dillon Marsh Ward Weavers Ward 6 TROWBRIDGE EAST ED Adcroft Ward Part of Pork Ward 7 TROWBRIDGE SOUTH ED College Ward Drynhom Ward 6 TROWBRIDGE WEST ED John 0' Gaunt Ward INDEX MAP OF WILTSHIRE

NORTH WILTSHIRE

Maps I & 2 show in detail those areas where the proposed Electoral Division Boundary does not follow existing Borough Ward boundaries. A~$, Repr^ents Ihe/i for El

SWINDON ROUGHMOOR ED

^JB ^MaWC^

*WHTO*'•'!/ 'i w

%^.9D*h t^f" .•^ > \ imV. Westlea/ SWINDON TOOTHILL

O/' ?2r2r,JP' "! 1 I1"-!—I--<-T-.J> tj I I • ' /& COVINGHAM

SWINDONDORCANSOUTH ED

Crown Copyright »92 ~